Anthropic "pauses" token-based billing for its Claude Agent SDK

Anthropic paused token-based billing changes for its Claude Agent SDK on June 15, reversing a decision that would have significantly increased costs for users of its automation-focused tools. The company had announced on May 13 that usage of the Claude Agent SDK, including through third-party applications and the "claude -p" command, would be billed separately from standard Claude chat interface usage. Under the original plan, SDK usage would have been charged at prevailing API rates, with subscribers receiving a monthly credit equivalent to their subscription price. This contrasted with the existing model where SDK usage was capped by the weekly limits of a user's Claude subscription tier. This existing structure allowed power users to obtain substantially more value from their subscriptions compared to paying API fees. An analysis indicated that Claude Opus subscribers could begin saving money after only two to three daily messages, with their subscriptions potentially yielding multiples of their monthly cost in API usage value.